Motor vehicles wheels, especially wheels made of light alloy, are frequently damaged on their side surfaces near the tires. The damage is usually caused by the wheel knocking and scraping against obstacles such as curbs, walls and stones.
To avoid having to change the entire wheel or the tire, the wheel may be fitted with a protective ring. The protective rings also have a decorative function since they can be made of materials with suitable ornamental properties or treated on the surface more easily than the entire wheel in order to obtain a desired decorative effect.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,948,272 discloses a ring construction for ornamenting wheel rims. The ring can be applied to one of the outer portions of the rim edge and in cross section presents a concave and convex profile shaped to match and fit snugly to the wheel rim. Owing to the highly curved shape of the ring section, the ring is difficult to remove from the rim.
European patents EP-0 022 740 and EP-0 022 741 disclose another two protective rings. One drawback of the ring constructions described in these patents relates to the presence of screws on the outer edge. Damage to the screws as a result of the wheel striking an obstacle makes it impossible or very difficult to remove the ring itself or the ring fixing device because an ordinary tool cannot be used to undo the damaged screws. Moreover, the deformation of the ring caused by the impact may make it difficult to take the ring off the wheel rim even if the screws are removed.
Patent document WO-93/07012 discloses a wheel with another type of protective ring, in this case glued to the rim.
Again, however, if the ring is damaged, it becomes difficult to remove it from the wheel because of the residual glue.